Latest K n T trip

 I had a day off on Friday, and I figured it would be the last chance I had to go to K n T’s Sportscards and spend a whole afternoon there before school starts again, so I made the trip to Ormond. I have always went by myself, but Karen convinced me to take Kyler. I knew trying to keep an 8 year old occupied while I dug through dime boxes wasn’t going to be easy, but I figured if I could have him go through stacks and find Tigers and Rays that I could search for favorite players and Topps needs. 

I found a good assortment of stuff, including a few of players that I had never heard of that appeared in majors sets. I figured, why not, they weren’t going to break the bank. The Mike Linskey was one of those, as was the ‘93 Team Stadium Club Brian Deak. The Nolan Ryan’s before the Deak cars were ones Kyler picked. He has been hung up on Ryan after hearing he threw the world’s fastest pitch, and has also been hung up on Honus Wagner and his famous tobacco card after hearing about it. I might have to find a cheap reprint of it. 

The ‘94 Team Stadium Club Tyler Houston is one of the few cards of him as a Brave. Kind of weird that he was a #1 pick of them, was with them up through 1996 (when they were just starting to field good teams and appeared on tons of cardboard), and still has very few Braves cards in major sets. Just a 1990 Score and Topps Draft Pick card, 2 Bowmans from 1990 and 1991, the Team Stadium Club card from 1993, and 2 issues from 1996, a Pinnacle Aficionado, and a Score Summit card. Just strange for a prospect from a popular team to have been in the organization for 7 years and only have 7 cards during the overproduction era. The ‘95 Emotion cards were nice finds, as was the ‘95 UD Minors Daron Kirkreit. My friend Jim (who I’ve mentioned in a few posts) was getting rehab on his knee a few years ago, and happened to have Daron as his therapist. He asked me if I had any cards, and I had a Fleer Excel minors card, so I gave it to Jim, and he got it signed for me the next time he went in for exercises. The Stadium Club SP of Pat Rapp comes from the 1996 set. It was one of the first base sets in the modern era to feature SPs. These, I believe, were 1 per pack, and I always try to pick them up when I find them. 

Alex Delgado was another new to me player. Robert Smith was a guy selected by the Rays in the expansion draft, and another Braves prospect with very few Braves cards. Sal Fasano is one of the most friendly players I have ever met. I saw him 3 times over his career. The first 2, which were 2 Spring Training games in 1996, I must’ve got his autograph at least 3 times. I had a 1989 Topps Royals leaders card which he signed for me, and then at each game, I had a baseball, handed it to whichever Royals bullpen guy was signing, and they would pass it around the bullpen and sign it, and I ended up with 2 balls signed by Fasano, who was in the bullpen. Then, when he was with the Yankees and I finally had an actual card of him, I got Sal to sign his 2006 Topps Update card. I sold most of my autographs, and now have about 10 unsigned Fasano cards, but still have the baseballs. I never knew Roberto Hernandez appeared in the 1998 Fleer Diamond Ink program. I’m counting this as a Rays card, as I am the 1998 Stadium Club Bobby Abreu. Many people don’t know that the Rays selected him in the expansion draft and then traded him to the Phillies. I don’t think a photo exists of him as a Ray, but I do have the Stadium Club card with the Rays logo on it. I always love picking up 1998 Diamondbacks cards, and the fact that the Jay Bell I found was from the nice looking 1998 Upper Deck set was even better. The 2005 Bowman Silver Parallel must’ve snuck in the stack. Kyler saw it was serial numbered and I explained to him it was a different color, and I don’t think it made it back in the dime box. 

Now we switch to the more modern parts of the dime box dig, and get more Rays and Tigers. I have picked up a ton of Carlos Colmenarez cards from K n T’s over the past year or so, but have rarely heard about him on Rays sites despite him being in so many Bowman inserts. Looking at his stats, he is hitting in the low .200’s in A ball. If he’s a good fielder, he could start next year with the ‘Rays Way’ of valuing defense. I’m just glad that he’s a shortstop and that there are guys that hit better like Carson Williams ahead of him on the depth chart. 1/2 of a season more of Taylor Walls hitting .150!!!!  I picked up a ton of cards of Curtis Mead. He was recently traded away, so I’m hoping I can maybe find some of his Rays cards at a discount. I am disappointed at the Rays and Tigers for not going all in at the trade deadline. The Tigers should’ve traded Max Clark or one of their top prospects for Alcantara, Gallen, or Kelly, and also tried to get Eugenio Suarez and a closer. Charlie Morton should be retired, and the #5 starters and non closers they got for the bullpen are a joke. They deserve to get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs and Scott Harris needs to get fired unless it was an issue with ownership not wanting to pay money. Might be time to start rooting for a team that spends. Garrett Mitchell is the newest addition to my favorite player collection. He is a Type 1 diabetic, which I found out after reading the back of his ‘25 Heritage card. 

I found a ‘25 Topps True Photo variation of Jose Berrios. No clue how rare these are, but I had to pick it up. I only found a few Topps needs, but for a dime, I’ll take ‘70’s Topps cards all day. I also picked up the final 3 cards I needed to finish my 2025 Topps set. I probably shouldn’t have done it by busting blasters, but how would everyone have cards I’ve traded to them lately, and the dupes have also helped me with some trades. More on that shortly. Not sure how I am going to complete the ‘25 Update set, but maybe a hand collated set from eBay would be the best route. 

While I didn’t go to the National, I did pick up a Curtis Mead National Chrome card. Strangely, it has a Bowman back. The Finest ‘93 reimagined insert is neat. Lately, Kyler has been fascinated with the fact that I’ve pulled a Junior Caminero card from just about every blaster Ive purchased. I had to get a few Juniors, and a Chrome rookie insert isn’t a bad one to have. 

I don’t have the best memory like I did when I first started collecting (or maybe just have thousands more cards), so I had a decent stack of dupes at the end of the day. Not a big deal, as I can use them to trade, as well as put in other areas of my collection, such as rookies, parallels, and refractors. When you factor in the fact that out of everything I got that 5 were dollar cards, and I payed 10 bucks for all of those, I think it was a great trip. With an off day on Monday, I might have to see if I can go back. 

Actually, it might be a better idea to leave some time to go to the post office. I’ve found a set builders page on FB, and have made a few trades to help me finish the 2025 Topps set. One netted me a 320 card box of Rays that should arrive tomorrow. I am in the process of trading some Heritage, Chrome, and 2025 Topps extras to a guy on the page for a good stack of 2000’s Topps needs. I may just finish out the 2018 Topps set with what he has for me. I have a 500 ct box of stuff for him, and I need to find out the best way to ship it. There are probably a hundred or so other needs I could include, but then could I ship it in a priority mail flat rate box?  I haven’t done one before, so I have tons of questions. Do you just get it at the post office and load it up with whatever?  Are the boxes free?  Do I have to buy packing peanuts and tape, or can you just use them from the post office for free?  I might just bring the 500 ct box and ask the clerk at the post office tomorrow or Tuesday. However I end up shipping them, I’ll have a box about the same size of goodies coming back, and maybe I’ll finish a set or get very close. 

I’ve never been a huge Ryne Sandberg fan, but always felt he was a top notch player. I pulled his 1994 Topps Gold base card from a pack and thought I was going to retire rich. I was shocked to see that he passed, as I just saw a post from a FB ttm autograph page a few days ago saying that people were getting autographs back but that he included a note saying that he was stopping ttm autographs starting in August. 

I never actually got to meet him, but I was able to get his autograph. I lived in Montgomery, AL from 2006-2009. I moved prior to the minor league season, and Ryne was a coach at West Tennessee in 2009. They came to Montgomery for a game, and my friend Rob got me a ticket signed and sent it to me in Florida. 

I also have a bat relic card of him. I went up to Montgomery in December 2005 in a trip that would change my life. I went up to visit a former college roommate, JT, and some other friends from college. I stayed with JT, wrote a song with him, and that convinced me to move to Montgomery in a few months, allowed me to meet people over the next 3 years that would shape my piano playing, and strengthen my relationship with JT. He eventually became my brother in law when he married my youngest sister, and we still record music as comedy duo ‘The Younger Griffin’ and serious duo ‘Resiliency from Obscurity’. Long story finished, I picked up a jumbo pack of 2005 Topps Update from the card store there, and pulled a Luis Castillo All-Star jersey card, and the Ryno bat card. RIP, Ryno. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy